It’s the summer and with soaring temperatures, food outlets have to take extra precautions when storing and serving food to customers. It was found that as many as 126 restaurants, cafeterias and grocery shops in the emirate of Sharjah were caught breaking the municipality’s health and safety code.

Municipal inspectors at Al Dhaid’s public health department said that it recently carried out 149 random inspections, which resulted in fines against 33 food outlets and warnings for 93 others.

Ahmad Mussabah Al Tunaiji, from Al Dhaid Municipality, said that several food outlets switched off air conditioning and coolers at night, mixed ingredients together, and had expired food products on display, as well as some employees who failed to adhere to personal hygiene. “Shops that are found violating the health code are first given warnings, and if the offence is repeated, they can face heavy fines or also be closed down – depending on the seriousness and gravity of the violation,” he said.

Al Tunaiji explained that such types of inspection campaigns aim to ensure that employees follow the municipality’s health regulations, and that all food products offered to the public are healthy and safe.